Gość: bzykbzyk.
IP: *.nas1.honolulu1.hi.us.da.qwest.net
27.06.04, 07:53
Intel ICH6RW Recall:
While we are unsure if it will be classified as a "recall", there are
certainly going to be many new Intel equipped motherboards pulled back from
the channel as reported here on Thursday. The ICH6RW southbridge chipset
supports the new motherboard 925/915 chipsets from Intel and were launched
earlier this week. From information obtained today, it looks as though Intel
is using a yet to be announced fabrication process on their ICH6RW chipset
that is running them into some trouble due to leaking current. It was related
to us that the leaking current could weaken the onboard battery prematurely
causing BIOS resets, which would of course dump all the configuration
settings in the BIOS back to default. With current RAID setups and such
supported in the BIOS, a loss of BIOS settings could cause a no-boot
situation as the RAID configuration is lost. Even though this could be easily
fixed for the short term, it is surely an issue that Intel is currently
taking seriously.
An estimated number of 100,000 units are to be impacted with this issue.
Retailers and distributors are currently pulling many brands of 925/915
motherboards out of the channel. Our performance testing of 925/915 can be
found here . We are still waiting on an official statement from Intel.
**UPDATE** 6/24/04 11:08pm: It has been confirmed that this problem is NOT an
overall problem or defect with the new ICH6 southbridge. It is rather being
classified as a "Fab Excursion." It seems as though a layer of thin film was
not properly removed from the ICH6 chipsets causing the current leakage.
Intel has identified which chipsets have been affected and will be removing
those from the marketplace. An official statement will be forthcoming, but we
have been told that all 925/915 boards in the channel are being pulled for
the shelves for refund. Seeing how no PCI-Express video cards are for sale, I
doubt very many of these motherboards have been sold.
**UPDATE** 6/25/04 11:39am: Intel did give us a statement to pass along to
you. This of course verifies most of our previously reported information.
Intel has identified a manufacturing excursion that affects a limited number
of I/O controllers that are part of the 915/925 chipsets. This excursion